Copious Notes

It’s only November, but Balagula Theatre can already lay claim to an award-winning season. The company, based at Natasha’s Bistro and Bar, took its productions of Samuel Beckett’s Play and Not I to Morehead State University for the community theater festival at the Kentucky Theatre Association’s annual conference, and it came home with several of the top prizes.

They included:

Ryan Case shown in Samuel Beckett's "Play." He won best actor at the Kentucky Theatre Association's community theatre festival for the performance and best director for "Not I." Photo by Rich Copley.

Best performance: “Selected Plays of Samuel Beckett,” performed by the Balagula Theatre Company

Outstanding director: Ryan Case and Natasha Williams, “Selected Plays of Samuel Beckett,” Balagula Theatre

Outstanding actor: Ryan Case, “Selected Plays of Samuel Beckett,” Balagula Theatre

Excellence in lighting design: Gareth Evans, “Selected Plays of Samuel Beckett,” Balagula Theatre

Excellence in scenic design: Gareth Evans, “Selected Plays of Samuel Beckett,” Balagula Theatre

The remainder of the community theater festival award winners were:

1st Runner Up for best performance: “Overtones,” performed by Shelby County Community Theatre

Outstanding actress: Lynn McReynolds Chenault, “Overtones,” Shelby County Community Theatre

Outstanding supporting actor: Cody Anderson, “Little Women,” Artists Collaborative Theatre, Elkhorn City

Outstanding supporting actress: Teresa Myers, “One Freaky Afternoon in the Office Lunchroom,” Village Players, Fort Thomas

Outstanding ensemble: “Overtones,” Shelby County Community Theatre

Excellence in costume design: “Little Women,” Artists Collaborative Theatre

Outstanding technical crew: “Little Women,” Artists Collaborative Theatre

Excellence in stage management: Peggy Kenney, “One Freaky Afternoon in the Office Lunchroom,” Village Players

Spirit award: “Little Women,” performed by Artists Collaborative Theatre

The Lexington area was also distinguished in KTA’s inaugural Roots of the Bluegrass New Play Competition, where Danville’s Elizabeth Orndorff  won the top prize for “Aidan’s Gift” and Lexington’s Walter May was second runner up with “Gone Astray.” First runner up was “Bernice Sizemore’s 70th Birthday” by Nancy Gall-Clayton of Louisville.

In the High School festival, Paul Laurence Dunbar’s production of William Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” was first runner up. The winner was Owensboro High School’s “Almost, Maine” and the second runner up was Bardstown High School’s “Zoo Story.”

For their wins, Balagula Theatre, Shelby County Community Theatre, Owensboro High School and Dunbar High will participate in the Southeastern Theatre Conference’s play competitions when the annual regional theater event comes to Lexington March 3-7.

Pete Sears and Vanessa Becker as Mr. and Mrs. Martin in Balagula Theatre's "The Bald Soprano." Photo by Eugene Williams.

Warhorses need not apply on the Lexington Theatre scene this weekend. Bluegrass Community and Technical College and Balagula Theatre both offer up offbeat offerings this weekend, one homegrown and one from across the pond.

BCTC’s Theatre Program opens Jane Martin’s Middle Aged White Guys Thursday night, so we’ll start with them. The play, which premiered at the 1994 Humana Festival of New American Plays, centers on three brothers who gather every decade at a garbage dump to toast the memory of the woman one of them married and the other two had flings with. They eventually drove her to drive herself off a cliff, but with a little help from the Almighty, she’ll have her revenge. The play runs through Saturday at the Talon Winery and Vineyards.

Balagula Theatre opens French-Romanian author Eugene Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano Sunday at Natasha’s Bistro and Bar for a two-week run. The play presents two couples, the Smiths and the Martins having a visit that slips down a slope from normalcy to complete non-sequiturs. Directed by Natasha Williams, it is the second in Balagula’s season of existentialist, absurdiust plays. Natasha’s is arranging a special menu to compliment the play.

Press the play button to hear our podcast with Balagula Theatre co-director Ryan Case.

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Balagula Theatre opens its first official season Sunday, Sept. 13 with ‘B’ for Beckett (A Night of Samuel Beckett’s Plays). It kicks off a lineup of absurdist, exesstentialist theater at Natasha’s Bistro and Bar, including works by Eugene Ionesco and Jean Paul Sartre.

Read more about Balagula and Studio Players’ season opener, Agatha Christie’s The Unexpected Guest here.

And see an Unexpected Guest slide show here.

Ryan Shirar and Robyn Peterman-Zahn during rehearsals for "The King and I." Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

Paragon Music Theatre served up a surprise hit with its summer cabaret programs at Natasha’s Bistro & Bar last year, so they are back for another round.

“We always appreciate the opportunity to feature people in ways that we simply cannot do during our mainstage productions,” says Ryan Shirar, music director of Paragon.

Last year’s cabaret was sort of a soft debut for the theater’s new stage director, Robyn Peterman-Zahn, who made a big statement of a main stage debut in the spring with The King and I.

Advertisements for the event promise a cast of 40 — a number that could make the restaurant feel fairly full — singing show tunes. Several e-mails, Facebook messages, etc., have highlighted children in this show as particularly adorable.

Performances are at 8 p.m. tonight (Aug. 3), Tuesday and Aug. 17 and 18. This year, and the programs will be the same. Seating and dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. and showtime is at 8. There will be a $10 cover for the show added to dinner bills. Call (859) 259-2754 for reservations.

Click the play button to watch our slideshow of The City. Click the “four arrow” button in the right hand corner of the command bar to watch it full screen.

Gene Woods is deep in a groove.

With his Stratocaster in hand, he’s singing a song — one of his songs — into a hot mike. At a break, he spins to his left to put the focus on vocalists Jane Harrod and Lara Brier as they purr the chorus.

Seconds later, the singers are out front on their own as Woods and drummer Arthur Rouse, percussionist Steve Parrish and keyboardist Tom Martin get into a little jam at the back of the stage.

“What really makes this exciting for me is the ability to express ourselves in original music,” Woods says of the band, The City, a jazzy, bluesy act that’s just starting to make some noise in Lexington.

He’s not doing it for the money.

Woods has a pretty good day gig: He’s chief executive of St. Joseph Health System.

Most of his bandmates also have solid day jobs. Brier is the drama teacher at Sayre School. Harrod is a landscaper, Martin is the editor of Business Lexington, and Rouse owns Video Editing Services. Parrish recently retired from a career as a psychiatric nurse.

“He’s still a psychiatric nurse,” Martin jokes, and Woods adds, “We just don’t pay him on this side of things.”

Rounding out the lineup for the band are:

■ Brian Powers, bass, who works at the University of Kentucky College of Law and is working on setting up his own law practice.

■ Chris Goode, trumpet, attorney.

■ Mike Meuser, trombone, attorney.

■ Dr. Jay Zwischenberger, harmonica, chief of surgery at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.

■ Paul Osbourne, saxophone, who has had a variety of jobs, including stockbroker and financial consultant.

“All these day gigs are to put food on the table,” Osbourne says. “My life is music. Since I was 13, I played music.”

Everyone in the band has significant musical experience, and several are playing in other bands. They all have had other careers but have kept music as part of their lives.

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